Sunday, 21 August 2016
Wednesday, 29 June 2016
Celebrating great storytelling. How many different ways can you tell a story?
The Stage 3 students have been exploring great stories and looking at the different ways that stories can be told. We have adapted Shakespeare's tale of Romeo and Juliet to create our Wakakirri story - Star of the Sea, as well as exploring other versions and adaptations of this story.
We also attended the recent Marist production of Odyssey and enjoyed comparing how stories from The Odyssey have been used in modern literature such as The Percy Jackson series. Some students have even been inspired to write their own version of the Odyssey set in a modern day Race Around the World!
We also attended the recent Marist production of Odyssey and enjoyed comparing how stories from The Odyssey have been used in modern literature such as The Percy Jackson series. Some students have even been inspired to write their own version of the Odyssey set in a modern day Race Around the World!
What does it mean that we are becoming a “Newman” Selective School?
The Newman Gifted Program commenced in 2012 as the Newman Research and Development Program. The aim of the program is to improve provision for gifted and talented students in Archdiocesan Catholic schools by the systematic development of a whole school program in gifted education and thus to provide a Kindergarten to Year 12 pathway for gifted and talented students.
At the end of a three year process of professional learning and implementation of policies and programs, a school will apply to become a fully accredited Newman School at which point they are entitled to use the Newman Gifted Program logo on all school correspondence and advertising.
At St Mary’s we are in the second year of this process. Our focus in 2017 is on streamlining our identification processes, along with up-skilling and supporting all staff with professional learning opportunities to ensure quality differentiation and suitably challenging learning opportunities are offered to gifted students within class.
What does gifted mean?
The Gifted Education policy at St Mary’s adopts Françoys Gagne’s definitions of giftedness and talent as identified in his Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (2010, DMGT 2.0).
Giftedness designates the possession and use of untrained and spontaneously expressed outstanding natural abilities or aptitudes (called gifts), in at least one ability domain, to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10% of age peers.
Talent designates the outstanding mastery of systematically developed competencies (knowledge and skills) in at least one field of human activity to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10% of ‘learning peers’ (those who have accumulated a similar amount of learning time from either current or past training) (Gagne, 2010, p. 82).
Underachievers are defined as students who show a discrepancy between their school performance and some index of his or her actual ability. (Davis & Rimm 2004)
Our approach to Gifted Education as a Sydney Catholic School
‘I have come that they may have life and have it to the full’ John 10:10
The Gifted Education Policy for systemic Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Sydney is set within the context of the Church’s mission to evangelise, and is founded upon the Vision and Mission Statements and the Archbishop’s Charter for Catholic Schools.
Pope Francis in his book ‘Education for Choosing Life’ refers to education as ‘an act of hope’. Faith and the Christian vision of humanity fuel that hope. As partners in Catholic Education, Sydney Catholic Schools are committed to supporting this challenge by Pope Francis to fuel hope in all our students through fostering the attainment of their full human potential.
Our Archbishop’s Charter amplifies this challenge in item 2, where our schools are called to:
“Nurture students’ love of learning through a Catholic pedagogy that fosters the development of the intellect, moral knowledge, understanding and reasoning in a relational, social and cultural context.”
(The Archbishop’s Charter for Catholic Schools, Archdiocese of Sydney, Item 2, July 2011)
According to Gagne’s definitions and model (2009) gifted students represent about ten per cent of the student population in Sydney Catholic Schools. This calls for a differentiated response in every school to the educational needs of these students. At St Mary’s we believe that all learners have the right to receive an education that is responsive to their needs and the provision of an appropriate educational program for the gifted is an issue of equity.
Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Emotional intensity in gifted children
This article by Lesley Sword explores and explains emotional intensity in gifted individuals. A number of traits of emotionally intensity are described. Strategies for parents are suggested to help their emotionally intense gifted children to accept themselves as they are.
PARENT WORKSHOPS: GERRIC is rolling out some new workshops to meet the needs of parents who want to explore certain topics in more depth than is possible in the weekend Parent Course. The next specialised parent course will take place in July and will be facilitated by Ruth Phillips.The topic for the day will be 'Underachievement prevention and support'
GERRIC - Specialised Parent Courses
Wednesday, 15 June 2016
What does Gifted Education look like at St Mary’s?
What does Gifted Education look like at St Mary’s?
- Trained specialist teachers work in different capacities in the school. In 2017 this involves our Newman Extension English and Maths group in Stage 3, along with supporting identified students within other grades to ensure quality differentiation is occurring in all classrooms. In addition to this, these teachers lead the Professional Development of all staff, which includes supporting and mentoring staff to ensure suitably challenging and engaging learning opportunities are offered to gifted students in all classes.
In the classrooms
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